The Government's announced a new plan for Crown entities will work together to reduce family and sexual violence.
It's an attempt to break down the "silos" of Government departments, create a single point of accountability and make the system easier to navigate for both victims and perpetrators.
"The onus is placed on the victim to coordinate many providers (each with different eligibility criteria) to access the health, justice, housing, counselling, income support, and other services that they need to stay safe and move on with their lives," the Government said in a statement on Friday.
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Chief executives from 10 Government departments will work together, informed by a Māori advisory group and "other stakeholders" to develop a plan.
"We have to stop splitting this issue up into half a dozen unconnected silos. Family and sexual violence are complicated, affect every part of our community and demand a coordinated, committed response," said Jan Logie, Under-Secretary to the Minister of Justice (Domestic and Sexual Violence Issues).
The board of the joint venture is made up of chief executives from:
- Oranga Tamariki
- Ministry of Health
- Te Puni Kōkiri
- Ministry of Social Development
- Ministry of Education
- Ministry of Justice
- Police
- ACC
- Corrections
- and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The Government says the new approach will:
- lead a whole-of-Government work programme to reduce family violence and sexual violence
- have authority to provide strategic policy and funding advice on behalf of all agencies involved in the response to family violence and sexual violence, including collective Budget advice
- utilise levers for ministers to collectively prioritise the allocation of funding to ensure effective delivery of a whole-of-government strategy and response
- provide strategic leadership of the approach to commissioning services, working alongside contracting agencies to reflect this in their funding strategies, including the development of new models of contracting
- ensure an enduring, sustained commitment to reducing family violence and sexual violence that binds all of the agencies involved
- be accountable to the public and to Parliament for the performance of this whole-of-Government response to substantially reduce family violence and sexual violence.
A draft strategy and action plan will be developed by the end of the 2018, and a package will be released for Budget 2019.
Newshub.
